Long Term Zoning Plan Coming To Concord?

After town meeting and a problem with the zoning laws in Concord, the town's zoning laws are up to date with state regulations. However now the town's selectboard is trying to figure out what the town's priorities are. The selectboard held a meeting to discuss the priorities with the town's input. At the meeting residents discussed their vision for long term for the next five to twenty years. One idea was to have a designated town center, but some residents felt there wasn't enough lighting to do so.

Results from Concords 2011 Town Meeting

An on going issue since the 1970's, voters in Concord had to decide whether or not to close the doors to the Concord High School for good at this years town meeting. In  a very tight margin, only separated by 17 votes, residents of Concord elected to keep the doors open for at least another year 214 votes to 197. 416 ballots were filled out, by Australian Ballot, with 5 of them not voting on the issue. In other school news from Town Meeting, 


Article 23: Shall the Town vote to appropriate the sum of $250,000.00 from the Connecticut River Enhancement Fund to be placed into the Town of Concord School Capital Improvement Fund?


Was passed by a vote of 225 in favor to 185 opposed.


Concord voters also approved the school budget of $3,294,460 by a vote of 249 in favor to 157 opposed.


In other news the towns Zoning Laws was a hot topic at this years meeting. 


Article 3: Shall the Town vote to Repeal its Zoning By-Laws in order to eliminate all Zoning with-in the Town of Concord?


Residents of Concord Rejected Article 3, keeping the towns zoning by-laws. The vote was 217 against the repeal and 191 in favor of it.


Article 5 was also a very close vote.


Article 5: Shall the Town vote to prohibit the Constable from exercising any Law Enforcement authority in accordance with 24 V.S.A. 1936a (a)?


In another tight margin, only separated by 12, residents approved Article 5 by a vote of 209 in favor and 197 opposed.


Voters also agreed to appropriate the sum of $4,100 to pay for police services of the First Constable of the Town of Concord by a vote of 262 to 147.


ELECTED OFFICERS AND RESULTS


Town Warning:


Article 1 : To elect the following officers:
A Selectboard member for a three-year term- Robert Paquette

A Selectboard member for a two-year term- Sten Lium 160 Joseph Mooney 137 Write in Votes

A Town Constable for a two-year term- Ken Copp 183 Ed Bunnell 125 Joseph Mooney 60 Stewart Gray 34 

A Town Clerk for a three-year term- Donna Berry 290 Crystal Hudson 63 Donna Paquette 48

School Warning

Article 2: To elect a School Director for a term of three years.- Karen Call 185 Kerri Szymanowski 170

Article 3: To Elect a School Director for a term of two years.- Cathy Gordon 213 Janice Gray 127

TOWN BUDGETS

TOWN WARNING

Article 24: Shall the Town vote to raise $487,147.00 by taxes for all general expenses of the town (which shall include all special appropriations, specific appropriations for laying out and repairing highways and for the fire department)? Note: Budget will be reduced by any special appropriation not passed by the vote of the people on articles 6 (six) through 22 (twenty-two).

Article 24 was approved by a large margin with 280 votes in favor and 127 opposed.

WASTE WARNING

ARTICLE 1: Shall the voters authorize the Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District to appropriate and expend a budget of $631,300.00?

The Northeast Kingdom Waste Management District Budge was approved by a wide margin as well with 269 votes in favor to 140 opposed.

There were 416 casted ballots at this years Concord Town Meeting. The Austrialian Ballots were counted at the polling station by 26 ballot counters checking each ballot by hand. Ballots were counted as the polls closed at 7 PM with the final tabulation coming around 11:30.

Article 5 Becoming An Issue?

On Saturday, February 26 a new hot topic arose. Article 5 in the towns warning asks voters if they would like to "prohibit the constable from exercising any law enforcement." When the board was asked why this is an issue, selectman Jim Gochie stated that it would save the town $2,500. Each year the town of Concord has to pay excessive insurance premiums to cover the liability for a gun-carrying town official. One of the options the town is considering is to contract with the sheriffs department for services. By taking away these privileges, the Constable would only be allowed to serving papers and assisting the town's health officer, but not issuing tickets. Concord Constable, Kenneth Copp was at the meeting and defended his job stating that his "powers" rival that of the Vermont State of Police Troopers. He also said that by working with outside officials, the response time would be much longer, when he tends to respond to a scene in less than five minutes. Copp is facing three other candidates in this years race.

Interview With The Vice Chair of The Planning Commission/ Zoning Board

On Monday February 14th, I had the chance to interview the Vice Chair of The Planning Commission/ Zoning Board, Sten Lium. During our discussion Mr. Lium discussed the two major topics at this years Town Meeting. The first being the situation with the Concord High School.  Lium explained how some residents throughout Concord are trying to shut the school doors for good. These residents feel the school does not offer the best possible education for their children, and that their children could go to the surrounding schools. Lium said this issue has gone on since the early 1970's, and doesn't know if this issue will be resolved. The other heated topic is based on the town's Zoning Policy. Lium stated that this issue could very well be a misunderstanding. After a petition was issued to the towns selectboard, some residents feel zoning should be eliminated.  However, Lium feels that that the residents actually want some sort of change in the policy, and not actually have the whole Zoning By Laws Eliminated. Lium continued to say that at the meeting residents will be voting to eliminate Zoning, and not for a small change. With both of these issues, Lium strongly encouraged that residents really need to understand what they are voting for because it could affect the town for many years to come.